BECKWITH, Sir George (1752/3-1823), British General: Curved, half-length portrait in miniature of Beckwith

A LARGE AND BEAUTIFUL SIGNED AND DATED WEST INDIAN PORTRAIT MINIATURE OF THE BRITISH GENERAL WHO CONQUERED MARTINIQUE IN 1809 & GUADELOUPE IN 1810 COMMANDING NATIVE TROOPS ---PAINTED IN MARTINIQUE SHORTLY AFTER THE CONQUEST BY A FINE FEMALE FRENCH ARTIST: A UNIQUE EXAMPLE OF THE ARTIST'S WORK?

MARTNER, Mme, née Charlotte Gertrude Hélène Daniel (1781-1839), painter, painter in miniature and sculptor of the Antilles. BECKWITH, Sir George KCB (1752/3-1823), British General who saw very active service in America during the Revolution; conqueror of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Curved, half-length portrait in miniature of Beckwith in uniform standing in a dark hall with Grecian columns behind. A LARGE MINIATURE, 3 ¾ x 3 ¾" (9.5 x 9.5cm), glazed and framed. [Front Royal, Martinique:] Signed and dated "Mme Martner 1809".

A lovely, vividly colored and beautifully executed portrait of General Beckwith in dress uniform, painted from life while in Martinique. Apparently nothing else of Mme Martner's work exists, whether executed in mainland France or Martinique, and, in fact, her surname was thought to be "Mme Mantner" until 2008 (see, Nathalie Lemoine-Bouchard, Le peintres en miniature actifs en France, 1650-1850(Paris: 2008). Lemoine-Bouchard corrects the artist's surname in her La Lettre de la Miniature, No. 4, Décembre 2010. Redaction. We translate Lemoine-Bouchard's conclusion to her short, revised, 2010 biography of Mme Martner: "To date, nothing is known of paintings and sculptures of Mrs. Martner [our italics], nor if she practiced as a professional or dilettante." This very fine portrait miniature painted in Martinique puts to rest any assumptions that Mme Martner might have been a "dilettante", or anything but a professional. The future Mrs. Martner was born in Paris 15 August 1781, daughter of Jérôme François Daniel, engraver, and Angélique Charlotte Cholet. No connection has been made with Marguerite Cholet, painter in miniature, or with A. Cholet, painter in miniature active in 1807. Charlotte married a health official, and on April 15, 1803, they sailed from Le Havre for Louisiana. Apparently they got no further than Martinique. The Gazette de la Martinique of Wednesday 13 November 1804 describes a fête given in honor of the visit of the mother of the future Empress Josephine. A note therein said Mme Martner, a successful miniaturist, painted her portrait, made a bust of Napoleon, and painted an anonymous young girl with palm trees, also in 1804. Those works are not extant. Mme Martner had no children by her first husband, who died at Front Royal in 1810. In 1811 at Front Royal she remarried with a Spaniard from Catalonia, a man 30 years older than she. The marriage did not go unnoticed in Martinique and was considered a "very extraordinary marriage". Three children were born at Front Royal. At some point she returned to France, to the town of her first husband, and died at Nancy in 1839.

Sir George Beckwith, army officer and colonial governor, served during the American Revolution in the operations against Charleston, was with General Sir William Howe at the battles of Brooklyn and White Plains; took part in the capture of Elizabeth-Town and Brunswick in New Jersey; served at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown; then was aid-de-camp to general Knyphausen, who commanded the Hessian troops at the battle of Monmouth; attacked Fort Griswold, New London with Benedict Arnold, and finished his American war-time career by being entrusted by Lord Dorchester with the arrangements which took place with George Washington for the withdrawal of the British from this country in 1783. After the war he served in Canada and carried out confidential diplomatic missions to the United States between 1787 and 1791.

Following promotion to rank of major-general, Beckwith was made military commander of Bermuda, then made lieutenant-general, and "transferred to the governorship of Barbados, with the command of the forces in the Windward and Leeward islands. In 1809 he led the successful expedition against the French colony of Martinique, in which native West Indian troops of the 1st West India Regiment served with distinction, as they did again the following year when Beckwith invested Guadeloupe (see, A. B. Ellis, Major First West India Regiment, The History of the West India Regiment (1885), pp. 125-140). A general order of February 27, 1809, says: "From the day of the regiment landing, to that of the enemy's surrender, it served with the greatest credit under all the disadvantages to which a West India regiment is exposed. The hard and severe work is generally performed by them, which the European soldiers could not undergo from the climate." With a force of 11,000 men he sailed on 28 January 1809, arrived off Martinique on the 29th, and completed the conquest of the island by 24 February. The captured French eagles were sent home to great public acclaim—they were the first to be seen in Britain, and a broken eagle was incorporated into Beckwith's coat of arms. Having received the thanks of the Commons and Lords on 1 May 1809 he was created KB. On 22 January 1810 he led an equally successful expedition against Guadeloupe, the last of the French possessions in the area."-ODNB. It was the first time in the history of the wars of Great Britain that all the possessions had been wrested from France in that part of the world. Beckwith returned to Barbados on 29 July 1810 and remained there until June 1814, when with health failing he returned home and was made a full general. After his departure the Barbados legislature voted him a service of plate valued at ₤2500 in recognition of his services. The survival of this painting certainly rests with the fact that the general was pleased with his likeness, and returned home with it. This fine miniature of Beckwith was done on Martinique, and puts to rest any assumption that Mme Martner was a "dilettante". For a long biography of Beckwith see, The Annual Biography and Obituary(1824), pp. 133-148, as well as ODNB.